Smart Grid

Did you ever hear the expression, “work smarter, not harder”? That’s what many people think that our electrical grid should do.

Why It Matters

An electrical grid is a network of power plants, transmission lines, substations, transformers, and other devices that deliver electricity from power plants to consumers.

In the U.S., the electrical grid includes more than 9,000 power plants and about 300,000 miles of transmission lines. You connect with the grid whenever you plug in a phone charger or turn on a light.

Credit: Rolypolyman

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UnitedStatesPowerGrid.jpg

License: CC BY-NC 3.0

The U.S. power transmission grid is operated by about 500 different companies
[Figure2]

The current U.S. grid was designed over a century ago. Back then, people had few electric devices, so power needs were low. Today, the U.S. electrical grid is overworked, inefficient, and plagued with problems.